Man angry at IRS crashes plane into building

AUSTIN, Texas – A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent workers running for their lives.

At least one person in the building was missing.

The FBI tentatively identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack, 53. Law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on, said that before taking off, Stack apparently set fire to his house and posted a long anti-government screed on the Web. It was dated Thursday and signed “Joe Stack (1956-2010).”

In it, the author cited run-ins he had with the IRS and ranted about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America’s “thugs and plunderers.”

“I have had all I can stand,” he wrote, adding: “I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at `big brother’ while he strips my carcass.”

The pilot took off in a single-engine Piper Cherokee from an airport in Georgetown, about 30 miles from Austin, without filing a flight plan. He flew low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the side of the hulking, seven-story, black-glass building just before 10 a.m. with a thunderous explosion that instantly stirred memories of Sept. 11.

Flames shot from the building, windows exploded, a huge pillar of black smoke rose over the city, and terrified workers rushed to get out.

The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston to patrol the skies over the burning building before it became clear that it was the act of a lone pilot, and President Barack Obama was briefed.

“It felt like a bomb blew off,” said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk. “The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran.”

Stack was presumed dead, though police said they had not recovered his body as of Thursday evening. At least 13 people were injured, with two reported in critical condition. About 190 IRS employees work in the building.

Gerry Cullen was eating breakfast at a restaurant across the street when the plane struck the building and “vanished in a fireball.”

Matt Farney, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying plane near some apartments just before it crashed. “I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off,” Farney said. “It was insane. It didn’t look like he was out of control or anything.”

Sitting at her desk in another building a half-mile from the crash, Michelle Santibanez felt the vibrations and ran to the windows, where she and her co-workers witnessed a scene that reminded them of 9/11.

“It was the same kind of scenario, with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying,” said Santibanez, an accountant.

The building, in a heavily congested section of Austin, was still smoldering six hours later, with the worst of the damage on the second and third floors.

The entire outside of the second floor was gone on the side of the building where the plane hit. Support beams were bent inward. Venetian blinds dangled from blown-out windows, and large sections of the exterior were blackened with soot. It was not immediately clear if any tax records were destroyed.

Andrew Jacobson, an IRS revenue officer who was on the second floor when the plane hit with a “big whoomp” and then a second explosion, said about six people couldn’t use the stairwell because of smoke and debris. He found a metal bar to break a window so the group could crawl out onto a concrete ledge, where they were rescued by firefighters. His bloody hands were bandaged.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said “heroic actions” by federal employees may explain why the death toll was so low.

The FBI was investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator as well.

Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin on the Homeland Security Committee, said the panel will take up the issue of how to better protect buildings from attacks with planes.

In the long, rambling, self-described “rant” that Stack apparently posted on the Internet, he began: “If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, `Why did this have to happen?'”

He recounted his financial reverses, his difficulty finding work in Austin, and at least two clashes with the IRS, one of them after he filed no return because, he said, he had no income, the other after he failed to report his wife Sheryl’s income.

He railed against politicians, the Catholic Church, the “unthinkable atrocities” committed by big business, and the government bailouts that followed. He said he slowly came to the conclusion that “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.”

“I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well,” he wrote.

According to California state records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state’s tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004. Also, his first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.

The blaze at Stack’s home, a red-brick house on a tree-lined street in a middle-class neighborhood six miles from the crash site, caved in the roof and blew out the windows.

Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said the house caught fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her teenage daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived.

“They both were very, very distraught,” said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn’t know the family well. “‘That’s our house!’ they cried. `That’s our house!'”

Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was treating two people who live in the house.

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Associated Press writers April Castro and Jay Root in Austin; Michelle Roberts in Georgetown; Linda Stewart Ball, Danny Robbins, Jeff Carlton and John McFarland in Dallas; Devlin Barrett, Lolita C. Baldor and Joan Lowy in Washington; and Melanie Coffee and Barbara Rodriguez in Chicago contributed to this report, along with the AP News Research Center.

A disgruntled Inland Revenue employee who quit spectacularly by driving his car through the doors of the tax department’s Christchurch building has been handed a hefty sentence of community work and ordered to pay $13,000 in reparations.

David Theobald, 48, took his dissatisfaction with his employer of 25 years straight to the front counter at 6.30am on August 15.

He crept his Mazda 626 up to the Inland Revenue building on Cashel St and, after making sure no staff were present, slowly drove through three sets of plate-glass doors causing more than $40,000 in damage.

Theobald, a long-time Christchurch musician whose stage name is Mick Elborado, admitted the crime, quipping to police when they arrived: “It’s OK officer, I work here.”

Photos of his exploits quickly emerged on the website of his band, The Axemen, and a Mick Elborado is Innocent page was set up on Facebook.

Theobald pleaded guilty and yesterday was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court by Judge Jane McMeeken.

Defence lawyer Simon Clay said Theobald’s actions were in the nature of a protest, the culmination of a conflict at work that had lasted for some time.

There was a medical background to the offending, he said.

Theobald had checked there was no risk to any staff and smashed the windows early on a Saturday. He had been “disarmingly frank” with police, admitting his crime at the first opportunity.

The judge wanted to know why Theobald, a worker for 25 years, had no assets and no savings to make reparations.

He said he spent his money on drinks for friends and “being generous”.

The judge said Theobald deliberately drove through plate-glass doors. His actions were completely inappropriate. “It’s one thing to protest, it’s quite another thing to deliberately and wantonly destroy property.”

The building’s owner, Rapaki Property Group, sought reparation of $27,000; Inland Revenue sought $14,500. The judge sentenced Theobald to 300 hours community work. Reparations of $8000 to Rapaki and $5000 to Inland Revenue were ordered at $20 per week from Theobald’s sickness benefit.

All Souls

Having now taken command of Los Angeles, and whilst allowing trade to continue as normal albeit under ein military regime, this is 2000 and some harrowing but major exceptions to the rule have decided, independent of the fully sanctioned and streets away, predictably, from where the real action was happening.

Hollywood 'n' Fry's

Notably, Stu and Steve (on behalf of the axemen as a partially available whole, or soul [‘The choice is yours, you tithe your 10% to your local rich-ass and you’re in line for the throne” struck out Pedro, his fb) buoyed by her decision to put a modicum of their eggs in one basket (as a causation equation and bearing in mind dragan and bob are initiated and primed to enter the arena at an unspecified yet predetermined time)

This first episode I call ‘WHITEY’

Science is fuck-all. We each have our own Memphis. We are all Elvis. Who the fuck are you? - Steve Humann, thats who!

Checked out rental cars. Some horseless carriages yippeeing up and restless, no doubt riled up by the host with the most, the antagonist, the chip mother, the screaming, breathing Grimm brother, th senseless one they don’t talk about, thy slipped a micky finn to one of those guys, who gives a fuck who.

HOWEVER

All Souls is an equal-fate non-soul-discriminatory story, primarily but not solely based on the sole premise that the soul’s sole is imprinted indelibly on the soul of the holy fisherman, the weeping fisher, the fishing weeper, the weeper who never fishes, across the river directly from the fisher who never weeps…
Ginger the sliced ginger guy grunts as he psycles off another few slices of ginger for the solely soulless. “Otherwise it’d be for the birds!” he quips, the word ‘birds’ rhyming with the oft-used-advertising phrase ‘dis iz forda boids’!, mostly famous for accentuating the long vowel sound in the 60’s.

Dave Theobald has worked at Inland Revenue’s Christchurch office for the last 20 years. His work is valued, he is a highly intelligent literate man. And he has problems with mental illness, something the TV ads tell us happens to 10% of the population.

He was diagnosed paranoid after self referring himself to a doctor. Because of the medication his work output became low. Dave was assigned a colleague within the department and this is where the real problems began.

This unqualified colleague would make her own “diagnosis” based on ‘OOh I don’t like the look of your eyes, I think you’re a bit mad today’ and other such remarks. On this basis she would insist on visits to the doctor where she sat in attendance and would insist on Dave’s medication being changed, often with adverse side affects to Dave.

On one occasion shortly after being assigned, when Dave was off work for a week and enquiring whether he had any money and being told he had $800 for emergencies, she proceeded to borrow first $300 then another $500 off Dave till “next payday”. The money wasn’t repaid for a year until Dave insisted.

Another episode illustrates the stress Dave was under.

Dave: “I had gone through a particularly trying time, after being assaulted in my own home by gang prospects and burgled twice by my next door neighbours.”

The colleague insisted on driving him to Psych Emergency.The diagnosing psychiatrist, asked to talk to her alone first. After speaking to her, the psychiatrist seemed very concerned and was insisting Dave be admitted for 3 weeks of residential psychiatric care at the local hospital. Dave already under stress from the burglaries and having to appear as a witness against the gang prospects was shocked.

The psychiatrist decided that even if Dave didn’t go to hospital he required three weeks off work, no annual leave, no sick leave, so totally unpaid and with no chance to prepare.

When Dave applied to sight the doctor’s notes he discovered his colleague in her private conversation with the psychiatrist had said blatant untruths such as ‘His house is filled with rotting food and swarming insects such as ants’ – Dave has photos of his house he’d taken at the same time, which although messy was quite habitable.

But do not get the impression that Dave is a charity case, somebody employed to demonstrate Inland Revenue’s commitment to human rights. He is a highly intelligent individual, very good at his job and insanely knowledgeable about tax. In a working environment where these extra stresses weren’t laden on him he is a productive and useful member of a team. His department in Inland Revenue was one of the more specialised, making decisions on very large refunds.

In workplace assessments over the three years these events occurred his overall marking was 106% out of an unattainable 120%. Exceptional results by anyone’s measure.

Dave is also a gifted multi-instrumentalist musician and has played keyboards for one of NZ’s top indie bands for the last 20 years.

In short Dave is a functional, valuable member of society, who recognises that he has a problem, but is well equipped to deal with it under normal circumstances.

Events finally came to a head last week when after Dave’s repeated efforts to have his colleague’s behaviour looked into, IR Management in Christchurch responded with a list of unachievable demands at a meeting on Friday:

1. Only working between 8:30 am and 6pm on whatever he was assigned which is basically the stuff nobody else could deal with. He was expected to clear up to 9 cases per hour, his section dealt with refunds of over $100,000. Previously Dave had been starting work at 10:30am (because his medication makes him drowsy first thing in the morning) and working till 7 or 8pm.

2. Dave has a 4 day week for mental health reasons, and if he was unable to work on any particular day because he was sick, he would swap the days around. The new edict from management demanded that he only take Wednesday off, any other day had to be leave without pay and a medical certificate would have to be provided by Dave. The reason given was for “structure and consistency”.

This regime would continue for a month and if Dave hadn’t met all targets by then it would be “formal discipline” time. Management referred to this unattainable plan as “moving forward”

How many times have we heard of management trying to get rid of “difficult” staff by assigning them impossible tasks so at the end they can sack them for non fulfillment?

In Dave’s case it was even more dangerous. After spending a sleepless night on Friday worrying about his future, and realising that while at the moment he was sane, he certainly wouldn’t be after a month worth of stress and sleep deprivation from worry about meeting these unattainable targets.

So in Dave’s own inimitable way he decided on Saturday to show his response to their demands and the stress IR were trying to put on him.

After checking the cleaners had left and the building was unoccupied, Dave drove his car through the plate glass windows of the Christchurch Inland Revenue Office and left it parked, lights on and surrounded by shattered glass, in the foyer.

Calmly waiting for the police to arrive, car keys in one hand, a copy of Emma Goldmans “Anarchism and other Essays” in the other Dave quipped to the arresting officers “It’s OK – I work here”
Conventional media has remained absolutely silent on reporting these events for two days, possibly because they feel uncomfortable about what has probably been presented by the cops and IR as the act of an unhinged person.

But this is *not* the act of an insane person – rather the actions of a man, confronted with abuses of power and a work regime designed to push him over the edge, to *protect* his own sanity and highlight the overwhelming wrongs and abuses perpertrated against him as an employee.